


Darkness in Bright Shadows

by Golden_Daughter



Series: Tales Untold, Songs Unsung [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire
Genre: Character Study, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 02:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12785238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Daughter/pseuds/Golden_Daughter
Summary: History is full of footnotes, and every footnote has an untold story. This is Rhaella Targaryen's.





	Darkness in Bright Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a piece of wish-fulfillment, trying to adhere to canon, that's my 17th birthday gift to myself. So, if any character is OOC, please excuse me!

My life has been spent in shadows. Bright shadows, but shadows nonetheless. Now, with a babe crying in my arms after all these years, the shadow of death about to claim me, I know that I will be naught but a footnote in the legacy of my House. Well, every footnote has a story...and this one is mine.  
My Grandfather Aegon adored me. I was his special little girl, his darling to spoil. I loved to hear his tales of adventuring with Ser Duncan the Tall. My Grandfather was the hero of my life. Everyone in the Red Keep marveled at how I had the King wrapped around my little finger.  
My parents often told me that he had chosen my name. **_Rhaella_.** 'She who shines.' During my childhood, the dawn of my life, when life itself was shimmering with happiness, I glittered, too. I was the shining Princess at the Red Keep. Later in life, I truly understood the unintended irony in my beautiful name.  
But, how could I expect myself to understand the truth then? I was still a child, and one of my most cherished memories was that of my Grandfather's warm voice saying ' _My little precious child. Your destiny is special, sweetling.'_ Even though I could not fully comprehend what he'd said then, I had agreed with him, for he was the King, closer to God than human, and his word was gospel.  
Knowing what I know now, I can see that Grandfather was as human as the rest of us, albeit a great man. I can also understand that, whatever destiny he had dreamed of for me, it was not this, that he had no control over fate, the fate that decreed that I and my life would be overshadowed.  
But, I had not known anything then, growing slowly but surely out of my enchanted life, along with my brother. Our parents treasured us both. I was the pristine little lady, he the charming mischief maker. Growing up, we shared secrets, and, above all, pranks. Lord Tytos Lannister was the easiest on to play pranks on. We enjoyed his bafflement. Sometimes, he'd discover it was us, though he would let it slide good-humoredly, in his avuncular way.  
As I and Aerys grew, we diverged. I found my companions in my ladies-in-waiting, and he in Tywin Lannister and Steffon Baratheon. Arielle Martell and Joanna Lannister were everything a Princess could ask for as friends, Arielle with her worldly-wise ways and Joanna with her easy grace. I and Joanna almost idolized Arielle back then.  
I envied her because she was a grown woman, married to the love of her life and with a child of her own. She had made her own choices, and that was what made me jealous, for I knew, even at that age, that my life was not my own to live as I chose.  
What fascinated Joanna, however was different. Joanna almost couldn't believe that there was a land where women could rule, where we were equal to men. She was intoxicated with the thought of a free land, of Dorne, where even we could be free. Little did either of us know, children we were, that freedom was a thing found only in dreams...  
No, we were quite oblivious to the changing atmosphere that preceded the War of the Ninepenny Kings. To me, it was a blow least expected. However, thankfully, my family came out unscathed, Aerys with a shining martial record and a new knighthood, and I had growing up to do.  
Joanna and I lost our hearts to love at the same time; she to Tywin Lannister, and I... to Ser Bonifer Hasty. My days passed in the haze of young love, until the day he crowned me Queen of Love and Beauty in a tourney. That was the day my parents chose to shatter my girlish illusions.  
I had walked in by mistake in the midst of a row. My parents and Grandfather were arguing quite loudly. _'Father,_ ' I heard my Father say, _'The prophecy is the future of our dynasty!'_ _'Very well,'_ I heard Grandfather's resigned retort. _'I wash my hands off it!_ ' That was when Father noticed me.  
'Rhaella,' he began. I stiffened, recognizing his sombre tone. _Something is about to happen…_ _‘We have betrothed you.’_ My heart stopped in my chest. I tried to be dutiful, to bid farewell to Ser Bonnifer in my heart. But, I couldn’t. I startled as my Father continued, _‘To your brother.’_ **Aerys?** I thought. _‘Father, I can’t!_ ’ I exclaimed, duty forgotten for once. ‘Aerys is my brother! I’m just the younger Princess, can’t I...’ Marry for love? He said some gibberish about prophecy that I did not understand, overriding my strenuous protests. I did not know then, that these words, the prophecy, will define my life from then on.

  
My wedding day dawned murky and cold, mirroring the dread in my heart. Each moment of it was burned into my soul. My desperate clasp of Joanna’s hands, the way she had given mine to my father with tears in her eyes mirroring those in my own; I and Aerys staring at each other, heartbroken; the wedding vows; and, worst of all, the bedding ceremony.  
Shaking and shivering though I was, Aerys took me in his strong embrace gently. For a moment, I clung to him, my brother. The illusion of safety shattered when he kissed me, deep and long. We then danced the oldest dance of them all. Even then, there was no passion, only duty.  
The year that followed was the best of them, and yet the worst. It started out as the best for the bond between myself and my brother was the strongest then, when I was carrying Rhaegar in my womb. It steadily grew worse, as my family tried over and over again, without avail, to reawaken dragons. Just as Rhaegar saw the dawn of his bright life, the fire at Summerhall erupted. And grief descended upon the realm.  
Yet we preserved. The years flew by, and bonds formed in childhood soured. With each sweet babe I lost, Aerys grew more bitter. His eyes began to stray to other women, chief among them Joanna Lannister. She, to her credit, avoided his roving as much as she could, but, hurt beyond belief then, I accused Aerys and Joanna both. To this day, I regret the words I last spoke to her. _‘I will not have him turn my ladies into whores.’_ I wonder if that was the day I lost the last vestiges of innocence still left in me.  
As my brother’s Queen, I remembered her often. ** _Joanna_**. The lady I could never hold a candle to, in Aerys’ eyes. Even in his delirious fits, the curse he had lost his mind to, he yearned for her. Perhaps it is fitting then, that the cause of his end wore her face…  
I cannot forget the day Joanna’s daughter bargained with Aerys, giving him a piece of the lady long gone. The girl was more Tywin than Joanna, however. For a while, I wondered, what had she given him?  
I did not have to wonder long. Shortly after the Tourney at Harrenhal, a young knight knelt in front of me. When I bade him to remove his helm, I stared at a ghost. The ghost of Joanna Lannister, returned to haunt me.  
Today, I wonder. Was it all a ploy? A game played by Tywin? _A game of lives, to slay all the dragons, just like my sweet Rhaegar was lost ?_  
No, I resolved, as, with my last breaths, I crowned my son. I looked at his newborn sister with fading eyes and whispered, _'Her name is Daenaerys. Together, you are the last hope of our dynasty.' Fire and blood shall triumph. And this will be my legacy._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it!


End file.
